The .256 Winchester Magnum is a firearms cartridge developed by Winchester, and was produced by necking-down a
.357 Magnum cartridge to .257 diameter. It was designed for shooting small game and
varmints.
History
Introduced in 1960, Winchester offered ammo and reloading components into the early 1990s. The cartridge was first chambered in the Ruger Hawkeye single shot pistol. The next year (1962) Marlin chambered their Model 62 Levermatic rifle for the new Winchester cartridge. These were the two principal firearms chambered for the .256 Win. Mag. It is now obsolete and only offered as a chambering by custom manufacturers of single-shot firearm barrels such as Match Grade Machine and Bullberry. Previously, the
Thompson Center Custom Shop had produced some, before closing its doors in 2010.
Ballistics
From an 8.5 inch pistol barrel the 60 grain .256 Winchester factory load was advertised as having a MV of 2350 fps and ME of 735 ft. lbs. This was 250 fps faster and nearly twice as powerful as the
.22 Remington Jet, a varmint cartridge for revolvers that was also based on a necked-down .357 Magnum case.
According to data from the fifth edition of the Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading, handloaders with a .256 rifle can approximately duplicate the Winchester factory load using the Hornady 60 grain Flat Point bullet in front of 15.5 grains of H4227 powder for a MV of 2700 fps. The trajectory of that load looks like this: +2.3 inches at 50 yards, +4.4 inches at 100 yards, 0 at 200 yards, and -26.2 inches at 300 yards.
Winchester offered factory loaded .256 Magnum ammunition (and brass to reloaders) into the beginning of the 1990s. Winchester .256 factory loads used a 60 grain Open Point Expanding bullet at a MV of 2760 fps and ME of 1015 ft. lbs. from a 24-inch rifle barrel. That is about 500 fps faster than Winchester factory loads for the old .25-20 cartridge. At 200 yards the velocity was 1542 fps and the remaining energy was 317 ft. lbs.
Firearms
The .256 Winchester Magnum was chambered in a very small selection of firearms, and never achieved great commercial success. Its firearms included:
*
Marlin Model 62 Levermatic lever action
*Universal Firearms
M1 carbine
The M1 carbine (formally the United States carbine, caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine chambered in the .30 carbine (7.62×33mm) cartridge that was issued to the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War, and t ...
variant
*
Ruger Hawkeye
The Ruger Hawkeye is a single-shot pistol chambered for the .256 Winchester Magnum cartridge, produced by Sturm, Ruger & Co. from 1963 until July 1964. It was built on the same frame as the Ruger Blackhawk, but rather than having a rotating ...
single-shot pistol
*
Thompson Center Contender single-shot pistol barrel chambering
The 256 Winchester Magnum is also chambered occasionally in custom-built revolvers. Past candidates for this caliber conversion have included
Ruger
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and ...
Old Model and New Model
Blackhawks, and
Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (S&W) is an American Firearms manufacturer, firearm manufacturer headquartered in Maryville, Tennessee, United States.
Smith & Wesson was founded by Horace Smith (inventor), Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson as the ...
K-frames (Models
10,
14,
15, and
19).
Colt produced a small number of
Pythons in this caliber and retains a prototype in their museum.
Gallery
File:256magnumand357magnum.png, .256 Winchester Magnum round next to its parent case, the .357 Magnum.
See also
*
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the same ...
References
* .256 Winchester Magnum. (KNOW YOUR CARTRIDGE). Gun Digest, 2013 Jan 14, p. 17(1) ().
{{DEFAULTSORT:.256 Winchester Magnum
256 Winchester Magnum 56 may refer to:
* 56 (number)
* One of the years 56 BC, AD 56, 1956, 2056
* 56.com, a Chinese online video platform
* Fiftysix, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Fifty-Six, Arkansas, a city in the United States
* "Fifty ...
256 Winchester Magnum 56 may refer to:
* 56 (number)
* One of the years 56 BC, AD 56, 1956, 2056
* 56.com, a Chinese online video platform
* Fiftysix, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Fifty-Six, Arkansas, a city in the United States
* "Fifty ...